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Wonderful Movie

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This latter period François Truffaut film was one passed on to me by a very kind fellow IMDb user. Having seen Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962) and not having been particularly blown away by it, I have to admit having feelings of caution with regards this one; particularly given certain similar themes in the plot-line. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this one a great deal more. The story happens in a village in France where a young couple live a contented life. The husband's world is soon turned upside down; however, when a new couple moves in next door in which it turns out the wife was an old lover of his from a relationship that ended acrimoniously.This is a story about intense yet frustrated love and obsession. It worked very well for me, as the simple story has some fine performances underpinning the drama. Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardent have strong chemistry in the central roles of the adulterous characters conducting their passionate yet troubled affair. As we follow them through the motions, details slowly emerge about their history, although we are never fully given all the pieces to put together all the facets pertaining to their turbulent romantic past. Some mystery remains, which feels right and only makes the characters more compelling if anything. Like Jules et Jim it is in essence a somewhat tragic love story which doesn't really have a good ultimate message to give about the outcome of passionate love affairs. The most important character aside from the central couple is Madame Odile who runs a tennis club that acts as a social hub of the small local community. She became crippled for life after attempting suicide after being rejected by the man she loved; her story acts as a warning from the past for the young lovers, a warning that they ultimately do not or cannot heed.

This was a really unusual and very interesting film--especially since the way the movie ends took me by surprise. I won't reveal it, as it might spoil the impact.However, there is a serious problem with the plot. Like some other Truffaut films (such as Confidentially Yours), the main theme of the movie MUST be sustained by the actors behaving, at least initially, in a very improbable manner. Let me explain. The leading man and his family live next to a house that is for rent. A man leases it and when the first couple meet the new neighbors, the leading man realizes the new neighbor's wife is his old lover. This all occurs by chance. Okay. This is REALLY improbable but what happens next REALLY strains credibility. Neither the leading man or his ex-lover tell their spouses the truth about their past and this leads to a lot of uncomfortable moments. Considering BOTH were unmarried when their affair occurred and they currently had stable and loving marriages, it just didn't make sense why they didn't bring it all out into the open and have a good laugh about it.If you ignore this credibility gap, the rest of the movie is really good and takes a lot of surprising twists. It's worth a watch, but is far from Truffaut's best.

Believe it or not I want to like Truffaut, I really do, but I wish he'd give me a little help in spots. Coincidentally the opening shot - an ambulance leaving a country house clearly laden with the dead - is not unlike the opening shot of Chabrol's latest film, The Bridesmaid. In both cases we know that a given situation has ended in tears and that we are now about to be taken back to the beginning and be privy to its playing out. Despite an antithpathy to Chabrol's leading man and an admiration and respect for Both Truffaut's leads I found it hard to get anything from the Truffaut. I don't really mind his cardboard characters and cardboard situations but if only he had gone to Galeries Lafayette and not Poundstretchers for the cardboard. I've already upset one reader who seems incapable of grasping an essential of journalism is provocation which generates those letters to the editor and understands even less that opinion masquerading as fact is one of the best ways to do it via earlier comments on Truffaut and he seems destined to suffer even more anguish in a moment when I say that I was astounded when this disciple of the 'now', whose mantra was that new is better than good actually used - and not once but twice - an IRIS OUT which dates back to D.W. Griffith. Prior to that he was using Fades extensively. Shame on you, Franny, where's all that nouvelle vague thinking. The 'story' would fit on the head of a pin and still leave room for the King James version of the Bible; Bernard Coudray (Depardieu) is living happily with wife Arlette (Michele Baumgartner) in the middle of East Jesus when the empty house next door is suddenly occupied by Philippe Bauchard (Henri Garcin) and his wife Mathilde (Ardant). 'Meaninful' glances between Depardieu and Ardant complemented by music cues as subtle as a cream pie in the kisser alert us to the fact that these two have a history. Now it's only a question of how long before they get back in the sack and one of them says 'if I can't have you no one will'. Depardieu and Ardant are class acts and they almost create believable characters but with no help from either script or direction their hands are tied. Worth seeing - once if only to learn how NOT to do it.

An outstanding love story, with an astonishing, riveting performance from Fanny Ardant. My own love affair with Truffaut began as a teenager when I first saw "Jules and Jim." But "La femme d'a cote" moved me most directly and most powerfully of all his great work. Is love "toujours triste"? No, not always sad; now that I'm in my forties, I'm much less a romantic. And love may be of many varieties. But deep romantic love, I do believe, rarely appears on screen as honestly portrayed as here. "The Woman Next Door" presents us with the power, the physical impact of love, the way it "takes our breath" away and so much more. Truffaut so often focuses on love, and usually more positively and in a greater variety of ways than other great directors. But if you want funny, fresh young love, see Truffaut's "Soft Skin" or even "Don't Shoot the Piano Player. His films which are more about infatuation versus love, i.e., the original (Truffaut's film, not the American one with Bert Reynolds) "The Man Who Loved Women" or even the Hitchcock tribute "The Bride Wore Black" while "darker" in tone -- all these remain quite funny, generally light in tone, and quite lively in pace and style. In "The Woman Next Door," more tragic, melancholic moments appear -- it's more akin to the highly autobiographical "The 400 Blows," which tells of Truffaut's difficult adolescence. Yet it has its lighter moments, too. My own response was a strong interest in the drama, the suspense, and astonishment at the beauty of the story, the acting, and the many moments of cinematic genius. Truffaut did, personally, fall in love with Ardant, the lead actress here; they married, so just how much autobiography went into this tale and film -- I don't know. "Next Door" represents Truffaut in a mature phase of his life and career, one which shot off like a rocket and just kept climbing. Ardant went on to act well in many other films, even in several after Truffaut's death. In her starring role here, she made her debut to my acquaintance. She stunned me; I thought I knew Truffaut's work well enough -- after ten to twelve years of trying to see everything available by him, reading about him, and so forth. Yet this film knocked me out, all the same. Superb.